The Saints of the Cross by Michelle Figley Read Free Book Online Page A

around my back, drawing me closer.
    “Hey, handsome, where’s Javier?” I joke, looking over his shoulder.
    “You like?” he asks, spreading out his arms and biting his bottom lip in that teasing way that drives me wild. A few of the sweet peas, my favorite flower, break at the stems and fall to the floor.
    “Give me those,” I bark, snatching the flowers out of his hand before he can ruin them all.
    “Those are for Winifred,” he replies in a serious tone.
    “Of course they are,” I deadpan, sticking my tongue out at him.
    “Don’t tease,” he says with a mischievous grin, and I shoot him a look.
    “Don’t you talk to me about teasing, mister,” I say, as I arrange the flowers in an empty vase on a nearby table.
    “Okay, sorry,” he says, flipping his palms up defensively.
    “Are we going now, or are you going to stand there aggravating me all day?” I ask with a severe scowl, and then kiss him playfully to assure him I’m joking.
    “Vamos, Corazón. I’ve got big plans for us tonight. You’re going to love it.” He grabs my suitcase with one hand, my elbow with the other, and leads me out the door. “Don’t even try to pry it out of me. It’s a secret, and I’m really good at keeping secrets.”
    “Oh, boo!” I say laughing, but inside I’m dying. I want to make the next twenty-four hours stretch into forever. But I know my flight time, tomorrow at noon, will come too soon, and I’ll effectively be destroyed. I’m resigned to the fact that once that plane takes off from the airport, my entire world will come crashing down around me. I just hope I can hold it together in front of my family, especially my father. The last thing I want is for him to realize how serious I am about Javier, because if he knew, he would do everything in his power to keep us apart—of that much, I’m certain.
    My dad’s plans for me definitely do not involve a serious relationship. He wants me to focus on school and college—and if I were to work hard enough, I could have a future in medicine. Little does he know that all I want is to be with Javier.  All I need is Javier. So I must keep cool. I can’t give Dad ammunition to keep us apart. I want Javier to be able to visit me in DC. And then once I graduate from high school, we will be together forever. Nothing can or will ever come between us again.
    We take our time on the drive, stopping to get pictures together along the breathtaking Southern Spanish coastline. It is a place known for its gloriously temperate Mediterranean weather and ancient white-washed bucolic towns rising up like jagged cliffs above the shore. I don’t know if it’s just because of Cora planting the seed in my mind, but I’m more acutely aware of how women react to Javier during the trip. Their faces light up and their body language becomes more sensual—and provocative—in his presence. I’ve never known jealousy before, but I guess this is what it feels like. I don’t like it one bit.
    I try to ignore the knot in my stomach as a particularly beautiful Spanish girl offers to take our picture on a rocky beach near a small café stop. I try to ignore how she playfully brushes Javier’s arm when she hands his camera back to him. She gives me a perfunctory smile as we walk off, but she then whispers something to her equally gorgeous friend, and they both start laughing. Guess it’s something I’m just going to have to get used to while dating such a handsome man—all the female haters.
    We arrive at the Marbella city limits at noon. Javier drives the Benz convertible down a narrow road that follows along the shoreline for what seems like forever, finally coming to a stop in the parking lot of a marina.
    “What is this place?” I ask, looking around and taking in the panoramic vistas of the Mediterranean Sea, which is a color of blue so deep and mesmerizing that I’m almost positive it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the natural world. The intense, high-noon sun sends